Barberry - planting and care in the open ground

The red berries of barberry against the background of green leaves look beautiful and elegant. From it you can grow a beautiful hedge or decorate it with branches of a fence, gazebo, wall of the house. Barberry ordinary (Berberis vulgari) is grown not only for decorative purposes, but also because its berries are rich in vitamins.

Description of barberry: popular varieties and species

Barberry is a plant that has about 500-600 varieties. They differ from each other in the size of the bush, the length of the branches, the color and shape of the leaves. Berries can also be of different colors: red, yellow, orange, purple, burgundy. There are perennial and annual barberries, tall and stunted. Cultivated varieties have been bred from many plant species.

Berries contain many beneficial substances.

The most popular types and varieties:

• Evergreen (ordinary) - a tall shrub covered with long, narrow, green leaves. They fall not in the autumn, but in the spring, when new ones grow. The plant withstands frosts up to 35 ° C. The shrub well tolerates scarce infertile soil and polluted air. Known varieties: Alba (fluffy leaves and white fruits) and Lutea (yellow berries, grows only in good light).
• Thunberg Barberry is a shrub that grows wild in Japan and China. The leaves of barberry can be painted in red, yellow, green and orange shades. It is very unpretentious: it easily tolerates frosts, drought, lack of fertilizers and even gas contamination.
• Tibetan - a tall spreading tree grows up to 3.5-4 m. Red fruits appear to replace the purple flowers. Dark green leaves may curl into a straw. Widespread variety Goji Shambhala. This is a bush covered with thorns. Its fruits - goji berries - are effective against many diseases. Shrub grows in Tibet, North India, East China.
• Amursky is a tree 2-3.5 m high with a sprawling, but not dense bright green crown and yellow flowers. It lives in the Far East.
• Ottawa - a red-leaved shrub with a spreading crown. There are plants with purple, scarlet and dark purple leaves. Varieties: Aurikoma (burgundy leaves with a silver tint), Superba (red berries and purple leaves) and Silver Miles (yellow and red flowers, purple-burgundy leaves). The plant is often grown in the Urals and Siberia.
• Korean is a small shrub that grows on rocky soil. It is covered with long, thick spines. Large green leaves, shaped like an egg, turn red in the fall. On the bush, round berries of bright red color ripen.

Leafy shrub

There are several modified varieties of Thunberg barberry, which are very different from each other:

• An erect is a straight bush of a pyramidal shape, the height of which is 120-150 cm. Yellow and red flowers appear among the dense crown.
• Coronite - a tree up to 150 cm high, branches are arranged vertically. The leaves are pink, with a greenish border. In place of yellow flowers red fruits are tied.
• Golden Rocket - yellowish-green foliage, flowers and yellow fruits. It grows to 120 cm in height.
• Admiration - a bush up to 50 cm high, grows in width to 1 m. The leaves are yellow, red, orange in color with a white border around the edges.
• Atropurpurea - purple foliage forms an oval crown. When the yellowish flowers bloom, coral berries appear in their place.
• Harlequin - purple leaves are covered with white spots. The width of the bush is approximately equal to its height (2x2 m).

Barberry of Thunberg

Landing location, soil

In the suburban area, you can grow any species and varieties, for example, ordinary barberry. Landing and care will require hard work, patience, attention. The future life of the plant depends on the quality of the earth. Novice gardeners often do not know how to plant a barberry, what place to choose, how to prepare the soil.

You need to choose a place where groundwater lies deep. The plant does not like too wet soil, so you need good drainage. Soil acidity (pH) can vary from 4 to 8. Pebble beaches, areas with loose earth, loam, and rocky rock soil in which there is little turf are ideal.

The landing site should be reliably protected from strong winds and drafts. The plant needs plenty of light, then the bush grows quickly, the leaves become bright and dense, and the berries are more sweet. In a shaded place near the barberry, roots grow intensively, it is best to transplant a bush intended for reproduction for a short time.

Outdoor barberry planting

Many dream of growing barberry in the country. Outdoor planting and care will require a responsible attitude. You must choose a suitable place, acquire healthy seedlings and prepare the soil. Planting barberry is carried out in warm weather in the spring before the buds open. In autumn (until mid-October), seedlings with a closed root system can be rooted.

How to plant barberry:

1. Dig a hole 40 cm deep with the same width. For hedges, dig a trench 40 cm deep.
2. At the bottom, pour a layer of sand, gravel, expanded clay or pebbles with a thickness of about 10 cm.
3. Then put a mixture of garden soil, compost, humus (8-10 kg) and superphosphate (100 g). If the pH of the soil is closer to acidic, you need to add wood ash (200 g) and hydrated lime (400 g) to this mixture.
4. Drive in a wooden peg as a support.
5. After 2-3 weeks, put the seedling in a pit and sprinkle with earth. The root neck should go to the ground to a depth of 3-4 cm.
6. Tamp the soil, water it and mulch it with sawdust, dried leaves or peat.
7. Trim the top of the seedling, leaving 3-5 buds.

Outdoor bush planting

Seed cultivation

Barberry can be grown from seeds, but it is a long and painstaking work. It will take 2-3 years to grow a seedling from a seed, and only 20-40% of all seeds sown. It is advisable to plant several bushes, because they will need cross-pollination.

How to grow barberry from seeds:

1. Collect ripe berries, peel them from the pulp.
2. Rinse the seeds in water and place in a potassium permanganate solution for 20 minutes.
3. Wash and dry again.
4. Mix the seeds with wet sand and store them until spring in the refrigerator at a temperature of about +3 ° C.
5. In April, weed and loosen the earth in the garden.
6. Dig grooves 3 cm deep, sow seeds and sprinkle them with soil.
7. Thin out the sprouted sprouts when each of them grows 2 leaves. Leave only the strongest seedlings. The distance between them should be at least 3 cm.
8. Next year, the sprouts are transplanted to a more spacious place. In order for the berries to appear, the bush must be grafted, but this must be done no earlier than after 2 years.

In autumn, seeds can be sown on the garden immediately after disinfection.

Growing shrubs from seeds

Watering and loosening the soil

After planting seeds or seedlings, it is important to know how to care for barberries. This will not require significant effort and will not take much time. Proper care of barberry is reduced to timely watering, regular pruning, top dressing and loosening of the soil.

Barberry is watered only in hot, dry times. The plant will not die, even if the earth dries for a short time. Once a week, warm water is poured under the root. It must be ensured that moisture does not get on the leaves.

Once every 2 weeks, the ground near the roots must be loosened with small rakes. This will provide oxygen access to the roots and allow them to breathe. You also need to weed.

Methods of propagation of barberry

The main methods of reproduction are cuttings, layering, dividing the bush. Barberry is rarely bred with seeds: this is an inefficient method.

How to split a bush:

1. In spring or autumn, dig up a bush that has many healthy roots. Separate branches and roots in different directions.
2. Cut the rhizome with a disinfected pruner. Immediately treat the cut points with activated carbon crushed in a mortar.
3. Plant two new bushes in the ground.

Propagation by cuttings:

1. In the spring, cut off a few mature, but not old branches.
2. Remove bottom leaves from them.
3. Prepare the substrate: mix peat with sand and moisten them.
4. Plant the cuttings in a substrate to a depth of 2-3 cm.
5. Put the cuttings in the greenhouse. You can cover them with a plastic bottle. They should not dry out, so they should be watered regularly.
6. When the cuttings take root, plant them in open ground.

Reproduction by layering. Method Description:

1. Bend to the ground long side shoots.
2. Sprinkle with earth in several places.
3. When the roots appear, a new bush is cut off from the mother bush and transplanted to another place.

It is better to propagate the plant with cuttings and layering, but not seeds

Feeding and transplanting

In the first year after planting, you do not need to feed the plant. Adult barberry must be fertilized 2 times a year. In the spring, top dressing is added, rich in nitrogen and potassium, for example, 10 l of water + 20-30 g of urea. In the fall, phosphorus and potassium fertilizers will be needed: 15 superphosphate and 10 g of potash. Repeated feeding is carried out not earlier than after 4-5 years.

You can feed the bush once a year - in mid-July. To do this, pour a solution of Kemira Universal wagon under the root: you will need 15 g per 1 bucket of water.

Barberry pruning

In the spring, the branches of a bush that survived the first winter are cut in half. Then, in the summer (mid-July or early August), it is necessary to perform a sanitary haircut - remove diseased, damaged, weak branches. The crown of this plant can be given any shape.

Spreading crown bush

Much depends on how quickly barberry grows. The faster the branches grow, the more often they need to be shortened. Shoots of barberry Thunberg grow very slowly, so he rarely needs haircuts.

Pests and diseases

Barberry is an unpretentious plant with excellent immunity. However, it must be protected from pests and preventive treatment with drugs.

Ways to control pests and diseases:

• Rust or spotting - affects leaves. It is necessary to treat the crown with fungicides, for example, Bordeaux liquid.
• Powdery mildew - whitish spots and lumps on the leaves. The crown and branches are treated with fungicides. The solution of Fundazole is especially effective: 20 g per 10 l of water.
• Aphids, sawflies, moths - insecticides will be needed to get rid of these insects.

Flowering period and care after

Each gardener wants to see the flowering of their trees, so it is important to know when the barberry blooms. This occurs in late spring or summer. Each species and variety blooms in due time. The duration of flowering is also different. For example, Thunberg's barberry blooms for 12 days in June. On average, in most species, flowering begins in mid-May and lasts about 20 days. At this time, the plant does not need any special care.

Most varieties have yellow flowers

If the barberry does not bloom and does not bear fruit, you need to remember whether the planting was carried out correctly, whether all the recommendations for care were followed.

How to prepare for wintering

The plant needs to be sheltered for the winter. To do this, the bush is cut and tied from all sides with agrofibre or other insulation. Many varieties, with the exception of Thunberg barberry, are enough to cover with fir branches (lapnik). Open the plant in the spring after the weather is warm.

For the winter, the bush is covered with a dense non-woven fabric

Use in landscape design

A beautifully trimmed barberry bush adorns the garden. A variety of shades of foliage (which vary depending on the time of year) and colors allow the plant to be used to create magnificent landscape compositions. Crohn bushes can be given an interesting shape. The hedge will be the decoration of the fence, arbor or wall of the house.

Bushes can be trimmed and make landscape compositions from them.

Beneficial features

The berries of the plant have many beneficial properties. They contain vitamins A, E, C, organic acids, minerals. The fruits of barberry help to overcome the infection and lower blood pressure, heal scratches, relieve inflammation and remove parasites from the body.

From berries, you can make compote, juice, syrup or jelly. Only ripe fruits need to be harvested, because unripe berries are poisonous. Decoctions are also prepared from the bark and roots of barberry.

Healing decoctions, infusions, teas are prepared from the fruits

The remedy has contraindications. Infusions and decoctions of barberry should not be drunk by people suffering from gallstone disease, cirrhosis of the liver and bleeding. The fruits of the plant should not be eaten by children under 12 years old and pregnant women.

Barberry in the garden will decorate any summer cottage. Many gardeners love it for its beauty, tasty and healthy berries, as well as for its unpretentiousness in care.

Watch the video: How to Plant a Shrub (May 2024).